PAM, 

MISC.- 


/fS  f 


News  of  the  Year 


1914-1915 


Japan,  China, 
India,  Turkey, 
South  America 


National  Board  of  Young  Womens  Christian  Associations 
600  Lexington  Avenue,  New  York  City 
October,  1915 


NEWS  OF  THE  YEAR  1914-1915 


THE  past  year,  unique  in  history,  has  deeply 
affected  all  our  Associations.  Not  alone  the 
European  work  has  suffered,  but  those  countries 
in  which  our  foreign  department  labors,  have  felt 
its  influence.  In  some  fields,  difficulties  and  cur¬ 
tailments  have  been  necessary,  but  there  have 
been  with  the  difficulties,  greater  opportunities  for 
helpfulness.  From  all  lands  is  indicated  the  great 
need  of  the  work  of  the  Association  among  women 
and  girls  in  this  particular  year,  and  the  oppor¬ 
tunities  for  the  coming  year  are  yet  greater  and  may 
be  met  if  we  can  secure  the  re-inforcements  that 
are  needed. 


JAPAN 

JAPAN  has  from  the  first  been  characterized  by 
the  quiet,  steady  growth  of  the  Association. 
Tokio  has  been  made  the  model  Association  for 
the  empire.  Its  work  includes  two  student  hostels 
always  filled  with  earnest  students,  the  Travelers’ 
Aid  Work,  reaching  thousands  of  women  on  their 
journeys,  neighborhood  work  in  the  vicinity  of  the 
Association  where  evangelistic  meetings  are  held 
and  a  playground  is  eagerly  visited  by  poor  chil¬ 
dren.  The  administration  building,  so  long  looked 
for,  will  be  ready  for  occupancy  this  fall.  Instead 
of  the  crowded  little  room,  not  large  enough  to 


hold  the  growing  Bible  classes,  and  the  inadequate 
space  for  lectures,  there  will  now  be  a  center  for 
these  important  things.  All  the  activities  of  the 
Association  have  their  religious  import.  Thirty- 
nine  voluntary  Bible  classes,  of  which  nine  are 
normal  in  character,  meet  weekly.  Classes  for 
Bible  training  and  a  reference  library  for  leaders 
are  training  hundreds  of  women  for  Sunday  school 
work,  which  is  one  of  the  special  features  of  the 
Association  in  Japan.  The  twenty-three  Sunday 
schools  are  conducted  by  seven  Associations, 
supervised  by  Japanese,  and  five  other  Associations 
assist  in  twenty-five  more  Sunday  schools.  The 
work  in  factories  where  women  often  work  from 
six  in  the  morning  until  nine  at  night  is  bearing 
fruit.  During  the  year  one  hundred  and  fifty  girls 
have  become  Christians.  The  summer  conference 
had  two  hundred  and  eleven  delegates  from  twenty- 
eight  schools,  twelve  of  which  were  other  than 
mission  schools.  It  included  girls  from  three 
dormitories,  one  of  which  was  independent.  Nurses 
from  two  hospitals  were  also  in  attendance.  Several 
organizations  have  resulted  from  the  impetus 
gained  from  the  conference.  Throughout  the 
year,  the  members  have  been  diligently  sewing 
and  knitting  for  the  famine  sufferers  in  Japan,  as 
well  for  the  soldiers  who  have  taken  part  in  the 
present  war. 


CHINA 


HE  past  year  has  been  an  outstanding  one. 


1  More  changes  and  real  progress  have  been 
made  than  in  any  previous  year.  Of  the  three 
city  Associations,  Shanghai,  Tientsin  and  Canton, 
the  latter  two  have  suffered  because  of  the  depletion 
of  their  staff.  Three  secretaries  have  been  married, 


the  one  loaned  by  the  Presbyterian  Mission  has 
returned  to  her  own  work,  and  two  secretaries 
were  in  America.  The  Association  in  Canton  has 
suffered  most,  but  re-inforcements  are  on  the  way 
to  give  new  impetus  to  the  work.  Among  the 
encouraging  features  is  a  splendid  group  of  Chinese 
women  who  are  allying  themselves  to  the  move¬ 
ment,  as  members  of  the  board  of  directors,  and  as 
secretaries.  The  educational  work  in  Shanghai 
and  Tientsin  has  been  very  successful.  Membership 
rallies  have  been  held  in  both  cities,  bringing  not 
only  new  members,  but  a  larger  Association  spirit. 
The  physical  work  in  Shanghai  under  Miss  Chun 
and  in  Tientsin  under  Miss  Derry,  has  been  laying 
preparation  for  the  school  for  physical  directors 
which  is  soon  to  be  opened  under  Miss  Mayhew’s 
leadership.  The  first  supervised  playground  for 
children  was  established  during  the  year  through 
the  co-operation  of  the  Honorable  Mr.  C.  C.  Nieh, 
together  with  his  wife  and  mother,  who  gave  their 
gardens  weekly  for  the  use  of  the  children.  A 
committee  of  Chinese  ladies  give  volunteer  work 
in  its  supervision.  The  religious  department  in 
the  city  Associations,  has  been  splendidly  fruitful. 
Bible  classes  are  held  in  Tientsin  and  Shanghai, 
and  in  Foochow  although  the  Association  is  not 
yet  organized  there.  In  Shanghai,  a  Sunday 
afternoon  service  is  held  for  non-Christian  women. 
This  is  attended  by  from  seventy  to  one  hundred 
women  weekly.  The  claims  of  Christ  are  being 
thus  put  before  hundreds  of  Chinese  women, 
otherwise  untouched  by  Christian  teaching. 
Student  work  is  a  regular  department  of  the  work 
in  each  city.  Special  student  headquarters  are 
rented  in  Foochow  and  Tientsin,  in  which  Bible 
classes  and  social  gatherings  are  held.  In  Tientsin, 
the  first  Association  in  a  government  school  was 
organized  in  the  Government  Normal  School.  It 
includes  over  one  hundred  students  and  teachers 
all  enrolled  in  Bible  classes.  A  series  of  evange¬ 
listic  meetings  have  been  held  by  Mr.  and  Mrs. 
Eddy  in  which  Miss  Paxson  also  had  part,  and 
this  has  met  with  great  success.  Summer  Confer¬ 
ences  in  1914  were  held  at  Wo  Fu  Ssu  and  at  Soo- 
chow,  having  in  attendance  more  than  two  hundred, 
some  of  whom  were  from  government  schools. 


INDIA,  CEYLON,  BURMAH,  AND 


THE  STRAITS  SETTLEMENTS 

Association  movement  in  Southern  Asia  is 


1  under  the  direction  of  the  Indian  National 
Council,  and  is  more  fnlly  developed  than  else¬ 
where  in  the  East.  Many  of  the  cities  own  their 
own  buildings,  the  majority  of  the  membership  are 
Anglo-Indians  and  Europeans,  but  there  are  also 
Indians,  Burmese,  Singalese  and  Chinese.  A  large 
student  department  includes  hundreds  of  school 
girls  and  women  students,  the  majority  of  whom 
are  Indians.  A  vernacular  department  under  the 
Council  directs  Association  work  among  non- 
English  speaking  members  not  included  in  the 
student  department. 

Foremost,  naturally,  among  the  most  prominent 
activities  of  the  past  year  has  been  war  relief. 
Aliens,  including  missionaries  have  been  interned 
and  the  Association  has  had  charge  of  thousands 
of  gifts  and  parcels  not  only  for  the  wives  and 
children  of  British  soldiers  and  sailors,  but  for  the 
comfort  of  those  of  other  European  nations,  the 
women  and  children  of  German  and  Austrian  men, 
who  are  in  detention  camps.  The  Indian  women 
who  are  members  have  made  many  garments  by 
hand,  being  too  poor  to  afford  sewing  machines. 
Bombay  and  Calcutta  have  had  classes  in  domestic 
science  and  at  the  request  of  the  government, 
training  for  teachers  was  given  in  Bombay  for 
European,  Parsee,  Hindu  and  Indian  women. 
Singapore  has  given  much  attention  to  Bible 
study,  holding  a  conference  on  Bible  study.  Girl 
guides  are  well  organized  in  Madras,  Bombay  and 
Lahore.  The  student  department  staff  has  been 
sorely  depleted  and  it  has  been  impossible  to  do 
the  visitation  among  the  student  Associations 
needed.  There  have  been  some  encouraging  feat¬ 
ures  in  the  work,  however.  A  camp  for  students 
in  North  India  was  held  November,  1914,  at 
Debra  Dun  with  twenty-six  in  attendance  and 
there  is  reason  for  much  thankfulness  for  the 
spiritual  results  of  this  gathering. 


Almost  every  student  Association  carries  on 
some  form  of  Bible  study,  several  have  monthly 
missionary  meetings  and  in  one  or  two  places 
there  are  bands  of  Student  Volunteers.  Various 
forms  of  practical  service  are  increasingly  carried 
on,  such  as  teaching  in  Sunday  schools,  teaching 
servants,  helping  in  zenana  work,  visiting  hospitals 
and  leper  asylums,  sewing  for  Indian  soldiers  in 
France  and  for  hospitals.  Two  Associations 
supported  orphans.  Prayer  meetings  are  held 
regularly  in  most  of  the  student  Associations.  The 
World’s  Week  of  Prayer  and  the  universal  Day  of 
Prayer  for  Students  are  two  occasions  on  which 
there  is  a  wide-spread  effort  to  deepen  and  extend 
the  practice  of  intercession  That  which  impresses 
one  most  in  reviewing  the  Association  movement 
in  India  in  all  its  departments  is  its  practical, 
Christ-like  character  manifesting  itself  not  alone 
in  its  spirit  but  in  boarding  and  holiday  homes, 
travelers’  aid,  and  employment  agencies. 


TURKEY 


Young  Women’s  Christian  Association  has 


1  passed  through  a  most  difficult  year.  One  of  the 
two  secretaries,  Miss  Anna  Welles,  was  unable  to 
return  to  Constantinople  in  the  beginning  of  last 
year,  and  while  working  later  in  Paris,  has  re¬ 
signed  and  is  since  married.  Miss  Gage,  the 
traveling  secretary,  made  very  successful  tours  in 
Asia  Minor  during  the  spring,  meeting  with  wel¬ 
come  from  Greeks,  Armenians,  Copts  and  other 
nationalities  whenever  she  sounded  the  note  of 
women’s  helpfulness  for  the  nation.  However 
further  visitation  was  impossible  because  of  the 
war  conditions,  and  her  winter  was  spent  in 
Marsovan,  carrying  on  her  work  by  correspondence 
and  giving  much  time  to  relief  work  in  this  most 
needy  part  of  the  world.  “  The  end  of  the  Asso¬ 
ciation  year, ’ ’  she  writes,  “brings  many  interesting 
experiences  in  student  life.  New  cabinets  are 
forming  and  it  is  gratifying  to  note  the  increasing 
sense  of  honor  with  which  the  girls  take  on  their 
new  offices.’’ 


While  all  our  foreign  secretaries  are  specially 
needing  prayer  in  these  difficult  days,  none  more 
than  Miss  Gage,  who  in  special  isolation  and 
danger,  has  bravely  been  doing  her  best  to  serve 
the  women  and  girls  of  the  Turkish  Empire. 

ARGENTINA 

DEMOTE  from  the  scene  of  conflict,  Buenos  Aires 
has  felt  deeply  the  effects  of  the  War.  The 
securing  of  adequate  financial  support  has  been 
almost  impossible.  Many  of  the  girls  in  the  Asso¬ 
ciation  have  been  obliged  to  leave  the  city,  because 
of  loss  of  employment  and  the  secretarial  staff  is 
much  depleted.  But  with  all  these  discourage¬ 
ments,  there  are  some  very  real  encouragements. 
The  loyalty  and  devotion  of  the  staff  is  proven, 
the  work  of  the  finance  committee  and  the  co¬ 
operation  of  the  Argentine  department  continues. 
Religious  work  and  travelers’  aid  work,  so  essen¬ 
tial  in  a  city  like  Buenos  Aires,  continues.  Of 
especial  interest  is  the  “  Department  of  Legal 
Advice”,  in  which  Dr.  A.  del  Campo  Wilson  gives 
consultation  to  young  women  without  charge. 
Numbers  of  difficulties  have  been  straightened  out 
in  this  way.  A  successful  bazaar  under  the  auspices 
of  the  Argentine  Department  gave  encouraging 
results  not  only  in  money  raised,  but  in  the 
interest  and  helpfulness  and  co-operation,  shown 
by  members  and  friends. 

TO  SUM  UP 

This  year  has  witnessed  the  following  put  under 
appointment,  sailing  this  autumn  of  1915  : 

One  secretary  for  Japan 
Seven  secretaries  for  China 
Two  secretaries  for  India. 

During  the  coming  year,  we  need  the  most 
earnest  co-operation  of  each  Association  member  and 
friend  in  extending  the  kingdom  of  God  through 
the  Association  work  in  Asia  and  South  America. 
We  shall  need  at  least  twelve  secretaries  and  their 
support,  funds  for  the  completion  of  the  Tokio 
building  and  money  for  a  building  in  Shanghai. 


Including  vernacular  branches,  30. 


China 

India 

Japan 

j  Argentina 

|  So.  America 

Turkey 

20 

26 

6 

3 

1 

Total  No. 
sec’ys  sent 
under  World’s 
Committee 

—  V>J  O'  cO  OD 

Number  of 
American 
secretaries 

42 

155* 

20 

1 

30 

> 

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Q  ° 

£»'* 

er.S> 

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p 

« 

3 

65 

5 

1 

1 

City 

Associations 

39 

60 

15 

0 

19 

Student 

Associations 

1900 

9570 

2809 

500 

1325 

Total 

membership 

—  O' 

Number 

summer 

conferences 

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C/5 

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